Away in the Wilderness

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

  THE CONCLUSION.

  A week after the events narrated in the last chapter, Jasper Derry wassitting beside the stove in the hall at Fort Erie, smoking his pipe andconversing with his father-in-law about his intention of going to LakeWinnipeg with the brigade in spring and proceeding thence to Canada in abark canoe.

  "Of course," said he, "I will take Marie with me, and if you'll take myadvice, father, you'll come too."

  "No, my son, not yet a while," said old Laroche, shaking his head; "Ihave a year yet to serve the Company before my engagement is out. Afterthat I may come, if I'm spared; but you know that the Indians are notsafe just now, and some of them, I fear, bear me a grudge, for they're arevengeful set."

  "That's true, father, but supposin' that all goes well with you, will yecome an' live with Marie and me?"

  "We shall see, lad; we shall see," replied Laroche, with a pleasedsmile; for the old guide evidently enjoyed the prospect of spending theevening of life in the land of his fathers, and under the roof-tree ofhis son and daughter.

  At that moment the report of a gun was heard outside the house. One ofthe window-panes was smashed and at the same instant Laroche fellheavily forward on the floor.

  Jasper sprang up and endeavoured to raise him, but found that he wasinsensible. He laid him carefully on his back, and hastily opened thebreast of his coat. A few drops of blood showed where he had beenwounded. Meanwhile several of the men who had been attracted by thegunshot so close to the house burst into the room.

  "Stand back, stand back, give him air," cried Jasper; "stay, O God helpus! the old man is shot clean through the heart!"

  For one moment Jasper looked up with a bewildered glance in the faces ofthe men, then, uttering a wild cry of mingled rage and agony, he sprangup, dashed them aside, and catching up his gun and snow-shoes rushed outof the house.

  He soon found a fresh track in the snow, and the length of the stride,coupled with the manner in which the snow was cast aside, and thesmaller bushes were broken and trodden down, told him that the fugitivehad made it. In a moment, he was following the track, with the utmostspeed, of which he was capable. He never once halted, or faltered, orturned aside, all that day. His iron frame seemed to be incapable offatigue. He went with his body bent forward, his brows lowering, andhis lips firmly compressed; but he was not successful. The murderer hadgot a sufficiently long start of him to render what sailors call a sternchase a long one. Still Jasper never thought of giving up the pursuit,until he came suddenly on an open space, where the snow had beenrecently trodden down by a herd of buffaloes, and by a band of Indianswho were in chase of them.

  Here he lost the track, and although he searched long and carefully hecould not find it. Late that night the baffled hunter returned to thefort.

  "You have failed--I see by your look," said Mr Pemberton, as Jasperentered.

  "Ay, I have failed," returned the other gloomily. "He must have gonewith the band of Indians among whose tracks I lost his footsteps."

  "Have you any idea who can have done this horrible deed?" saidPemberton.

  "It was Darkeye," said Jasper in a stern voice.

  Some of the Indians who chanced to be in the hall were startled, androse on hearing this.

  "Be not alarmed, friends," said the fur-trader. "You are the guests ofChristian men. We will not punish you for the deeds of another man ofyour tribe."

  "How does the white man know that this was done by Darkeye?" asked achief haughtily.

  "I _know_ _it_," said Jasper angrily; "I feel sure of it; but I cannotprove it--of course. Does Arrowhead agree with me?"

  "He does!" replied the Indian, "and there may be proof. Does Jasperremember the trading store and the _bitten_ _bullet_?"

  A gleam of intelligence shot across the countenance of the white hunteras his comrade said this. "True, Arrowhead, true."

  He turned, as he spoke, to the body of his late father-in-law, andexamined the wound. The ball, after passing through the heart, hadlodged in the back, just under the skin.

  "See," said he to the Indians, "I will cut out this ball, but beforedoing so I will tell how I think it is marked."

  He then related the incident in the trading store, with which the readeris already acquainted, and afterwards extracted the ball, which,although much flattened and knocked out of shape, showed clearly thedeep marks made by the Indian's teeth. Thus, the act which had beendone slyly but boastfully before the eyes of a comrade, probably aswicked as himself, became the means whereby Darkeye's guilt was clearlyproved.

  At once a party of his own tribe were directed by their chief to go outin pursuit of the murderer.

  It were vain for me to endeavour to describe the anguish of poor Marieon being deprived of a kind and loving father in so awful and sudden amanner. I will drop a veil over her grief, which was too deep andsacred to be intermeddled with.

  On the day following the murder, a band of Indians arrived at Fort Eriewith buffalo skins for sale. To the amazement of every one Darkeyehimself was among them. The wily savage--knowing that his attempting toquit that part of the country as a fugitive would be certain to fixsuspicion on him as the murderer--resolved to face the fur-traders as ifhe were ignorant of the deed which had been done. By the very boldnessof this step he hoped to disarm suspicion; but he forgot the _bitten__ball_.

  It was therefore a look of genuine surprise that rose to Darkeye'svisage, when, the moment he entered the fort, Mr Pemberton seized himby the right arm, and led him into the hall.

  At first he attempted to seize the handle of his knife, but a glance atthe numbers of the white men, and the indifference of his own friends,showed him that his best chance lay in cunning.

  The Indians who had arrived with him were soon informed by the others ofthe cause of this, and all of them crowded into the hall to watch theproceedings. The body of poor Laroche was laid on a table, and Darkeyewas led up to it. The cunning Indian put on a pretended look ofsurprise on beholding it, and then the usual expression of stolidgravity settled on his face as he turned to Mr Pemberton forinformation.

  "_Your_ hand did this," said the fur-trader.

  "Is Darkeye a dog that he should slay an old man?" said the savage.

  "No, you're not a dog," cried Jasper fiercely; "you are worse--acowardly murderer?"

  "Stand back, Jasper," said Mr Pemberton, laying his hand on theshoulder of the excited hunter, and thrusting him firmly away. "This isa serious charge. The Indian shall not be hastily condemned. He shallhave fair play, and _justice_."

  "Good!" cried several of the Indians on hearing this. Meanwhile theprincipal chief of the tribe took up his stand close beside theprisoner.

  "Darkeye," said Mr Pemberton, while he looked steadfastly into the eyesof the Indian, who returned the look as steadily--"Darkeye, do youremember a conversation you had many weeks ago in the trading store atJasper's House?"

  The countenance of the Indian was instantly troubled, and he said withsome hesitation, "Darkeye has had many conversations in that store; ishe a medicine-man [a conjurer] that he should know what you mean?"

  "I will only put one other question," said the fur-trader. "Do you knowthis bullet _with_ _the_ _marks_ _of_ _teeth_ in it?"

  Darkeye's visage fell at once. He became deadly pale, and his limbstrembled. He was about to speak when the chief, who had hitherto stoodin silence at his side, suddenly whirled his tomahawk in the air, and,bringing it down on the murderer's skull, cleft him to the chin!

  A fierce yell followed this act, and several scalping knives reached thedead man's heart before his body fell to the ground. The scene thatfollowed was terrible. The savages were roused to a state of frenzy,and for a moment the white men feared an attack, but the anger of theIndians was altogether directed against their dead comrade, who had beendisliked by his people, while his poor victim Laroche had been auniversal favourite. Seizing the body of Darkeye, they carried it downto the banks of the river, hooting and y
elling as they went; hacked andcut it nearly to pieces, and then, kindling a large fire, they threw themangled corpse into it, and burned it to ashes.

  It was long before the shadow of this dark cloud passed away from FortErie; and it was longer still before poor Marie recovered her wontedcheerfulness. But the presence of Mr Wilson did much to comfort her.Gradually time softened the pang and healed the wound.

  And now, little remains to be told. Winter passed away and spring came,and when the rivers and lakes were sufficiently free from ice, thebrigade of boats left Fort Erie, laden with furs, for the sea-coast.

  On arriving at Lake Winnipeg, Jasper obtained a small canoe, and,placing his wife and Heywood in the middle of it, he and Arrowhead tookthe paddles, seated themselves in the bow and stern, and guided theirfrail bark through many hundreds of miles of wilderness--over many arough portage, across many a beautiful lake, and up many a roaringtorrent, until, finally, they arrived in Canada.

  Here Jasper settled. His farm prospered--his family increased. Sturdyboys, in course of time, ploughed the land and blooming daughters tendedthe dairy. Yet Jasper Derry did not cease to toil. He was one of thosemen who _feel_ that they were made to work, and that much happinessflows from working. He often used to say that if it was God's will, hewould "like to die in harness."

  Jasper's only weakness was the pipe. It stuck to him and he stuck to itto the last. Marie, in course of time, came to tolerate it, andregularly filled it for him every night.

  Evening was the time when the inmates of Erie Cottage (as theirresidence was named) enjoyed themselves most; for it was then that thestalwart sons and the blooming daughters circled round the great fire ofwood that roared, on winter nights, up the chimney; and it was then thatJasper received his pipe from his still good-looking, though ratherstout, Marie, and began to spin yarns about his young days. At thistime, too, it was, that the door would frequently open, and a rugged oldIndian would stalk in like a mahogany ghost, and squat down in front ofthe fire. He was often followed by a tall thin old gentleman, who wasextremely excitable, but good-humoured. Jasper greeted these tworemarkable looking men by the names of Arrowhead and Heywood.

  And glad were the young people when they saw their wrinkled faces, forthen, they knew from experience, their old father would become morelively than usual, and would go on for hours talking of all the wondersand dangers that he had seen and encountered long, long ago, when he andhis two friends were away in the wilderness.

  THE END.